How to Transfer American Express Membership Rewards to an Airline

Yesterday I notified you about the 35% British Airways Avios transfer bonus with Membership Rewards. If you’ve never transferred points before, this guide will help teach you how to transfer American Express Membership Rewards to an airline. The process is pretty simple, and I bet you could stumble your way through it, but I want to make it as easy as possible for you.

By the way, the same steps apply to hotels, cars, and rail, but you’d just click on “hotels” or “cars & rail” under the “Use Points” tab highlighted in step #2.

What You Need to Know Before You Transfer Membership Rewards Points

1. Confirm availability before transferring because transfers are irreversible.

Once you transfer points out of your Membership Rewards account, you cannot undo that transfer. If you were looking to use the points for a specific redemption, confirm that there is availability on your dates before transferring points.

2. Your results may vary, but people have had success transferring points to another person’s frequent miler program. Obviously, if that person is a spouse with the same surname and address, the process is simplified.

3. It’s always best to wait for a transfer bonus (like the current British Airways 35% transfer bonus) before transferring miles.

Membership Rewards Airline Transfer Guide

2. On the Membership Rewards page top navigation menu, click on the “Use Points” drop down arrow, and then click on Airlines.

3. You’ll now see a list of eligible airlines where you can transfer points. Click on transfer points under the airline of interest. Notice specifically that British Airways is currently having a35% transfer bonus [expired]. As such, we’ll use British Airways in this example.

4. Enter the number of Avios you’d like to get or click on “Reverse Calculation” to see how many Avios you can get for your set number of Membership Rewards. Once you know how many points you want to transfer, click on “Transfer this Amount”. You’ll need to accept the terms and conditions. There won’t be any charge for transferring to Avios.

About Craig Ford

Craig is an airlines point junkie and cheap travel addict. He believes that travel can be affordable to anyone (yes, you can travel cheap and travel comfortably too). He collects hundreds of thousands of air miles each year and will talk about great travel deals to anyone who is willing to listen.

Comments

I have Amex membership rewards points, and want to see about transferring to United or American. I don’t see them on the list. How can I then transfer? How long do I have to wait? Are there blackout dates for flying? I need to get a ticket for my college student leaving in September, coming back to NC at Christmas.

Nancy,
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but AMEX points don’t transfer to either American or United. Depending where you’re trying to get tickets to/from transferring them to British Airways and then using on American may be a good idea. If the distance is shorter that’s a great use of points. You can use this page to calculate the Avios needed – http://www.britishairways.com/travel/avios-calculator/public/en_gb. You’ll also want to check availability on your select dates before transferring points to Avios.

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